Qikiqtarjuaq (; formerly known as Broughton Island until November 1998 ,) is a community located on
Broughton Island in the
Qikiqtaaluk Region
The Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region (Inuktitut syllabics: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ) or Baffin Region is the easternmost, northernmost, and southernmost administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name f ...
of
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
, Canada. The island is known for
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
wildlife (ring seals, polar bears, bowhead whales, narwhals), bird watching (
Qaqulluit National Wildlife Area
Qaqulluit (Inuktitut syllabics: ''ᖃᖁᓪᓗᐃᑦ'' formerly Qaqaluit Island (meaning: "northern fulmar") is one of eastern Baffin Island's small, offshore, uninhabited islands, located in the Arctic Archipelago in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunav ...
), and as the northern access point for
Auyuittuq National Park
Auyuittuq National Park ( iu, ᐊᐅᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ, , "the land that never melts") is a national park located on Baffin Island's Cumberland Peninsula, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, the largest political subdivision of Canada. The park was ...
(see also
Pangnirtung
Pangnirtung (or Pang, also Pangniqtuuq, in syllabics: ᐸᖕᓂᖅᑑᖅ ) is an Inuit hamlet, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, located on Baffin Island. Pangnirtung is situated on a coastal plain at the coast of ...
)
Qikiqtarjuaq hosts an annual "Suicide Prevention Walk". Local participants would walk a total distance of across the tundra from
Kivitoo
Kivitoo is an abandoned Inuit community and a former whaling station on the northeast shore of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. Kivitoo's Inuit families moved to Qikiqtarjuaq, approximately to the south, in 1963.
History
In the early 20th cen ...
, an old
whaling station
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industry a ...
.
Today the walk is much shorter than the original two and a half days, but it is still meant to promote hope among the community.
The community hosts a two-week celebration over the Christmas and New Year period every year. Visitors are warmly welcomed and encouraged to join the festivities and games.
Near Qikiqtarjuaq was the home of FOX-5, a
Distant Early Warning Line
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska (see Proj ...
and now a
North Warning System
The North Warning System (NWS) is a joint United States and Canadian early-warning radar system for the atmospheric air defense of North America. It provides surveillance of airspace from potential incursions or attacks from across North America' ...
site.
In July 2011, Qikiqtarjuaq was featured in the
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
comedy series ''
Cabin Pressure
Cabin pressurization is a process in which conditioned air is pumped into the cabin of an aircraft or spacecraft in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for passengers and crew flying at high altitudes. For aircraft, this air is ...
''.
Geography
![View of the mountains near Qikiqtarjuaq](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/View_of_the_mountains_near_Qikiqtarjuaq.jpg)
Qikiqtarjuaq is situated above the Arctic Circle and off eastern
Baffin Island
Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...
.
Davis Strait
Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer Jo ...
and
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay ( Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; kl, Avannaata Imaa; french: Baie de Baffin), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arct ...
run to the east, and the
Baffin Mountains
The Baffin Mountains are a mountain range running along the northeastern coast of Baffin Island and Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada. The ice-capped mountains are part of the Arctic Cordillera and have some of the highest peaks of eastern North Amer ...
are located to the west, more specifically the
Arctic Cordillera
The Arctic Cordillera is a terrestrial ecozone in northern Canada characterized by a vast, deeply dissected chain of mountain ranges extending along the northeastern flank of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from Ellesmere Island to the northeas ...
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
. It is also one of the Nunavut communities closest to
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
.
Demographics
In the
2021 Canadian census
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sl ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
, Qikiqtarjuaq had a population of 593 living in 164 of its 193 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Services
![Fox 5 North Warning Site](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Fox_5_North_Warning_Site.jpg)
It is served by
Qikiqtarjuaq Airport, .
There are two grocery stores; The Co-Op and the Northern store (with a Canada Post kiosk). There are no restaurants or banks. Various accommodations are available. A health centre and
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
(RCMP) detachment are present as well. The health centre is composed of two nurses, an X-ray technician, a community health coordinator, a mental health worker, and administrative staff.
The community has a hamlet building where municipal affairs are conducted with a large community hall and meeting room. There is one school for K-12 students called Inuksuit School, and attached to the building is a small campus for Arctic College. The Piqalujaujaq Visitors Centre shares a building with the Auyuittuq National Park office. Access to Auyuittuq National Park north entrance is approximately 2 hours by boat in the summer months, 2 - 2.5 hours by vehicle or snowmobile in winter months. All park visitors must register and book an orientation session prior to entry into the park, and non-Inuit who visit Auyuittuq must do so by hiring a local licensed operator.
Qikiqtarjuaq is a popular stop for pilots who fly smaller
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...
to and from Europe. The airport has a gravel runway that is maintained. Qikiqtarjuaq is considerably closer to
Kangerlussuaq
Kangerlussuaq (; ; da, Søndre Strømfjord), is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality located at the head of the fjord of the same name. It is Greenland's main air transport hub and the site of Greenland's largest commer ...
, Greenland than
Iqaluit
Iqaluit ( ; , ; ) is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, its largest community, and its only city. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on which the city is situated. In 1987, its t ...
(CYFB). The
instrument approach
In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a landi ...
minima for the
non-directional beacon
A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are ...
(NDB) approach at CYVM is relatively high (2,000 feet barometric, 1,982 AGL) due to high terrain surrounding the airport. An airport advisory service, Qikiqtarjuaq Airport Radio, a Community Airport Radio Station (CARS), provides assistance to pilots during normal business hours, and provides weather observation services. An
automatic weather observation service (AWOS) operates when Qikiqtarjuaq Radio is unattended.
There is also an access road that was built to Tisunaaq, also known as Ceetee Land to the Elders, and another road is in construction to
Qikiqtarjuaqruluk, or Old Broughton, an
abandoned settlement. Kivitoo, an old whaling station, is located to the north and is currently abandoned.
Broadband communications
The community has been served by the
Qiniq network since 2005. Qiniq is a fixed wireless service to homes and businesses, connecting to the outside world via a satellite backbone. The Qiniq network is designed and operated by
SSI Micro
SSi Canada (formerly known as SSi Micro Ltd.) is a Canadian wireless broadband internet service provider primarily serving remote areas that lack terrestrial service options. SSi was established in 1990 by Jeffrey Philipp and is headquartered in Y ...
. In 2017, the network was upgraded to 4G LTE technology, and 2G-GSM for mobile voice. In 2020, Bell Mobility established a data tower and provides high-speed mobile and internet connectivity within the community.
Climate
Qikiqtarjuaq has a
tundra climate
The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...
(
ET), with the warmest month averaging below . Summers tend to be cool with chilly nights, while winters are long and cold. Early winter is the snowiest time of the year, with more than half of all year snowfall on average falling during this period.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Nunavut
Nunavut is the least populous of Canada's three territories with 36,858 residents as of 2021, but the largest territory in land area, at . Nunavut is also larger than any of Canada's ten provinces. Nunavut's 25 municipalities cover only o ...
References
Further reading
* Mallory ML, BM Braune, M Wayland, and KG Drouillard. 2005. "Persistent Organic Pollutants in Marine Birds, Arctic Hare and Ringed Seals Near Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut, Canada". ''Marine Pollution Bulletin''. 50, no. 1: 95–101.
* Stuckenberger, Anja Nicole. ''Community at play social and religious dynamics in the modern Inuit community of Qikiqtarjuaq = Een Samenleving in het Spel : sociale en religieuze Dynamiek in de moderne Inuit Gemeenschap van Qikiqtarjuaq''. Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2005.
External links
The Tulugak HotelLeelie Enterprises(Airport Fuel Provider, FBO, and Lodge Operator)
{{Authority control
Arctic Cordillera
Populated places in Arctic Canada
Hamlets in the Qikiqtaaluk Region
Road-inaccessible communities of Nunavut